northbound's jane wells is at the mall in california. jane, just how many people are out there. >> 50% off. no self-respecting store is without such a discount today. tracking into the weekend suggests it's beginning to look a lot like christmas 2007, says craig johnson of customer growth partners. he tells me sales have decelerated all through december. he now expects only 2.8% sales growth for the holiday. that is the slowest since the end of the recession, and they had a take on this weekend. >> in general people were a little bit flat, a little bit tepid, nervous because there's sti still. >> some are already starting the blame game. they say if this turns out to be a lackluster holiday, it could be due to americans feeling gloomy over this horrible shooting in connecticut, but marshall cohen is saying retailers were having problems long before that tragedy. he says, "the lack of sales is due to the lack of excitement in merchandise and to blame it on this terrible disaster upsets me, and then there's the concern everyone has about d